WORLD PRESS PHOTO OF THE YEAR 2015 — REFUGEE STUNNER: ‘Hope for a New Life’ by Warren Richardson at the Hungary-Serbia border is the overall winner. The European refugee crisis dominated. The winning pic | Highlights selected by POLITICO’s Tim Ball

PHOTOS OF THE WORLD’S MOST SPECTACULAR GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS: Berlin, Paris, Budapest and Stockholm get mentions. http://slate.me/1Trp6Ff

— This is my last Playbook for two weeks — I am taking a break in Australia, and will return to the fold with a couple of Playbooks from Down Under in March. There will be no interruption to Playbook, however, you’ll be in the capable hands of my colleagues including Florian Eder, Tara Palmeri, Nicholas Vinocur, Matthew Karnitschnig and Alex Spence.

FRIDAY FUN — BELGIUM’S LIMITLESS SURREALISM: Brussels has to conduct major repairs to its road tunnels in 2016. There might be a problem with that: it turns out the government stored the plans in a dark damp place and mice ate them. CityLab asks if this is the world’s worst excuse for poor infrastructure. http://bit.ly/1RbsSiO

MERKEL HUMOR: According to Bloomberg, at a private meal last month with German newspaper executives critical of her stance, the German Chancellor proudly served up Arab food and then bristled at a guest’s joke that the fish must have been caught by a refugee, according to a person with knowledge of the incident. http://bloom.bg/1oqRgmJ

EU LEADERS’ SUMMIT WRAP … LITTLE PROGRESS ON EITHER FRONT:

‘Dinner’ finished at 2.20 a.m., after six hours of tense migration talks, and there’s no UK deal, meaning it’s all Brexit today.

The pre-dawn and post-dawn hours are filled with bilaterals: Tusk and Juncker with Cameron, Hollande, Michel, Sobotka. Sherpa talks are tweaking the text on Brexit, expect some white smoke from them before the summit resumes at 11 a.m. Leader arrivals from 10 a.m.

CAMERON’S OPENING BID — A 13 YEAR BENEFIT BAN: Having spent all week telling other leaders they can’t change the text, that’s the first thing David Cameron tried to do in the UK summit discussion, but suggesting that his request for a seven-year benefit ban come with the option of two three-year extensions. Talk about not being able to read a room. Tara Palmeri reports: http://politi.co/1PUMS6M

VERY DIFFICULT MIGRATION DEBATE… Leaders agreed to yet another emergency summit on migration in early March, with a focus on the Turkey deal. Migration recalcitrants from central and eastern Europe are getting some sharp facts of life thrown at them this summit, including this from Matteo Renzi: take on migrants, otherwise net contributors (essentially the richer western EU nations) will cut-off EU subsidies. POLITICO summary | Renzi slam

AUSTRIA INSISTS ON MIGRANT CAP; EU SAYS IT’S ILLEGAL: Austria set the tone for discussions at the EU summit on Thursday by announcing a cap on asylum-seekers before European leaders even sat down to eat. The European Commission has said and written that this is illegal and “plainly incompatible with Austria’s obligations” under EU and international law. To all those wondering why I put Austria high up my ‘power matrix’ of EU leaders around the summit table, there’s your answer. http://politi.co/1RbhiEp

COMEBACK DU JOUR:Martin Selmayr didn’t find time to shake hands with his Viennese colleagues after the Austrian announcement: he let it be known that he’d already exhausted his quota of handshakes for the day.

SNAP POLL RESULTS ON THE UK DEAL: 43 percent of Londoners are in favor of remaining in the EU while 41 percent are in favour of exiting; 14 percent are undecided. The poll by Marketing Metrix shows middle class and more prosperous areas of London are in favor of staying in the EU, while lower socio-economic groups favor exit.

**A message from Visa Europe: The digitisation of payments is changing many things, not least the regulatory framework for online authentication – So the European Banking Authority has been asked to create guidelines for a consistent framework for all payment providers and users. To discuss these guidelines, and the impact of potential future changes, we brought together policy makers, regulators and security experts to discuss PSD2 and Strong Customer Authentication. A highlights video is available on visaeurope.com, and look out for more in the next few days.**

IRELAND’S KENNY TO GO BIG ON BREXIT IN LAST WEEK OF ELECTION CAMPAIGN: My sources say Kenny is determined to counter slipping poll numbers by projecting himself as only leader that can help protect Ireland from a Brexit. In effect he’s borrowing an old Fianna Fail motto of being the best when playing both home and away. Kenny seems to also be seeking an exemption from U.K. benefit restrictions. http://bit.ly/1mJeW4J

THE VIEW FROM BRITISH EUROSKEPTIC GROUPS: They pre-prepared their response before the debate actually happened. Vote Leave Chief Executive Matthew Elliott said: “David Cameron is in Brussels for a row about a trivial set demands none of which will return control back to Britain. Despite all the bluster, the arguments today will be inconsequential … The PM set the bar incredibly low for his renegotiation and he’s missed even that. The only safe option is to Vote Leave.” Nigel Farage was equally scathing.

AN EVER CLOSER UNION BETWEEN PARENTS: David Cameron doesn’t want the U.K. signed up to an ever closer union. Belgian PM Charles Michel cares about that phrase more than any of the other EU leaders. But will he give it all up for a set of French language Beatrix Potter books? That’s what Cameron gifted him as a present for Michel’s newlyborn. http://politi.co/1QMIkiu h/t Daily Telegraph

NATO LOOKS SOUTH: patrolling the Aegean sea for refugees is just the first operation in a new trend that sees the Alliance heading south. Ian Lesser explains why he thinks that is the case: http://bit.ly/1QnsUku

ECB — DRAGHI WINS SUPPORT FOR MORE MONETARY EASING, SET FOR MARCH: Minutes from the European Central Bank’s January meeting reveal unanimous support for further action to stimulate growth. While there are some concerns about the effects of more unconventional action on Europe’s banking system, Draghi himself has already told the European Parliament that he will “not hesitate to act” if he feels the eurozone needs boosting. http://on.ft.com/1PJIiu7

READ THE DUTCH GOVERNMENT STRATEGY ON UKRAINE REFERENDUM: Europe’s other referendum hit the headlines last night, when a 12-page government strategy was leaked to RTL news. Focus on trade, skip Russia is the upshot. Read the document here: http://bit.ly/1ovzMq7

COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS — NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT: The EU’s Committee of the Regions needs a new director of communications. While EU Commissioners sometimes get by with spokespeople of a grade known as ‘AD5’ in EU-speak (taking home roughly €4,000 per month), it seems the lesser press role at the EU’s regional body needs an AD14 in charge of it. So if you think you deserve €13-15,000 a month — which will leave you with around €10,000 in your pocket each month, plus or minus a €2,000 a month expatriation allowance if you move to Belgium to take up the job — then get in touch with the Committee. For €15,000 a month, I’ll assume you can search online for the job advert yourself.

CONNECTING EUROPE FACILITY — BY THE NUMBERS: The second call for bids for the transport element of this huge infrastructure fund is now closed. €7.6 billion was on offer, and 427 applications requesting a total of €13 billion of funding have been received. The selection process will start in March.

ECB — CURRENT UNCONVENTIONAL POLICIES WILL INCREASE INEQUALITY: The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) has concluded that while the European Central Bank has positive effect on economic activity and inflation expectations, its current “ultra-loose monetary policy” measures to manage the eurocrisis and stimulate growth are likely to raise wealth inequality in the short term: http://bit.ly/1PHFg9C

COMMISSION — INTERNET GOVERNANCE TOOL ONLINE, BUT PANNED: The European Commission has launched an online tool that aims to provide “access to informed and evidence-based discussions,” but tech experts at The Register are less than impressed with it. The Global Internet Policy Observatory tool is little more than “a link aggregating and tagging system, where blog posts and tweets from specific accounts or mentioning certain keywords are stored, automatically tagged, and then put into a search engine with redirects to the original article.” The tool was floated way back in 2012 and formally announced in December 2014, but only started aggregating data in January. http://bit.ly/1VocPzb

ROMANIA — HOW TO LOSE ON SOCIAL MEDIA: The Romanian president Klaus Iohannis lost 15,000 followers on Facebook in the last 48 hours, after attacking the Romanian tax authorities who have been investigating TV news channel Antena 3. Iohannis’ foes, the Social-Democrat Party, have accused current Prime Minister Dacian Cioloș of trying to curtail press freedom, provoking the Facebook backlash. http://bit.ly/1XzJROq

BRUSSELS MEDIA — ‘Le Café Diplomatique,’ recorded in the facilities of the European External Action Service (EEAS, will be monthly programming joint venture between Bruxelles2, a Belgian French-language website covering European affairs, and viEUws, an English-language EU policy broadcaster.The programme will be in French with English subtitles. The first edition of ‘Le Café Diplomatique’ can be viewed here.

US 2016 – Nevada Democrats vote in their primary tomorrow; South Carolina’s Republicans do likewise.

US 2016 — AFTER TRUMP’S HOLY WAR, THERE’S ONLY GOD LEFT TO ATTACK: With Donald Trump’s willingness to call Pope Francis “disgraceful” for his hedged criticism of the The Donald’s wish to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and make the Mexicans pay for it, the only entity left to insult is God it seems.

COMING UP NEXT WEEK…

TRADE — 12TH ROUND OF TTIP NEGOTIATIONS START MONDAY

FRANCE 2017 — ALAIN JUPPÉ VISITS BRUSSELS FEB 24: He’s coming to woo the many French citizens living in Belgium, at a special evening event at the Hotel Renaissance. The bigger question Brussels eurocrats and diplomats will be asking is: are we meeting France’s next President? His competition is a twice-indicted ex-President Sarkozy, a flailing François Hollande and Marine Le Pen and her 40 percent support ceiling. The answer could be yes. Read more on the visit here: http://politi.co/1ovRSs7

APPOINTED: Arne Schönbohm, will take over Germany’s 600-strong Federal Office for Security in Information Technology; Nirvi Shah is coming to Brussels from our Washington office to be POLITICO Pro editor.

**A message from Visa Europe: The digitisation of payments is changing many things, not least the regulatory framework for online authentication – So the European Banking Authority has been asked to create guidelines for a consistent framework for all payment providers and users. In Brussels on 10 February, Visa and CEPS brought together leading policy makers and regulators, retailers, banks, payment service providers and security experts to discuss how to achieve the best authentication standards to benefit consumers and business alike.

For videos of the event, as well as our guidance and positioning papers, and an in-depth article by Peter Bayley on Strong Customer Authentication, go to visaeurope.com. We’re also hosting a series of updates as more content becomes available, which we’ll be sharing across our social channels over the new few days and weeks. Just keep an eye on visaeurope.com.**

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